


Bonding Gone Wrong: A New Perspective

by savethepinecones



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Post-Season/Series 02, Shiro is missing, everyone is a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 15:30:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10767129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savethepinecones/pseuds/savethepinecones
Summary: After being nearly ripped apart by Zarkon's final attack, Shiro found himself with a new perspective. The Black Lion, in trying to save its Paladin, had performed a feat that had previously never been thought possible: A Lion physically and spiritually merging with its endangered paladin. Shiro was forced to watch his team deal with the aftermath of his disappearance.Left in the wake of Shiro's absence, Keith is faced with a new perspective of the leadership of Voltron. As he struggles to hold onto his sanity and wrestles to fill the gaping hole in the team, he starts to realize that Shiro is not as absent as he seems to be.ON HIATUS





	Bonding Gone Wrong: A New Perspective

Keith stared up at the Black Lion and sighed. He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t know how to do this. But it was necessary.

“Hey…” he started awkwardly. The lion stared down at him imposingly. Black was a lot bigger than Red, and while he had been aware of this since the beginning, it was never quite so obvious as it was at that moment.

A long silence stretched out as he tried to think of something to say. How had he bonded with Red? He wasn’t sure. He’d tried talking to her, which hadn’t worked at all, and before he could think of another way to form a bond, some sentries had appeared and he ended up launching himself into space with them. The lion had saved him, so apparently they had managed to bond somehow, but he honestly had no idea what had caused Red’s change of heart.

Allura had said that Red was the most difficult to bond with, and since he’d managed to do that, he thought that bonding with Black would be relatively easy, especially considering that he’d piloted him in the past. But Black clearly had no interest in bonding.

Black had only moved once, a few hours after the paladins discovered Shiro’s absence. He had sat up in the lions’ default position, but hadn’t budged an inch since. Keith wasn’t sure, because alien measurements of time were weird and the conversions still confused him, but he thought it had been about a week since Shiro’s disappearance.

In that time, Allura had convinced him to obey Shiro’s request to become the next leader of Voltron. He had been extremely reluctant, and still was, especially when Allura had asked him if he had a preference for who would pilot Red in his stead. Having to pilot a different lion- Shiro’s lion- was bad enough, but having to let someone else pilot his own was infuriating. In the end, after Allura’s continued insistence that the arrangement would only be temporary- until they got Shiro back- he had resigned himself to losing his closest friend on the ship.

However, he had refused to decide on a temporary red paladin immediately, stating that he needed to seriously consider each option and how it would affect the team. Allura had been relieved that he was already taking his position as leader seriously and actually considering his decisions instead of rushing into things, but in truth, he had mostly just wanted to postpone the inevitable for as long as possible.

He had thought about it, though. A lot. And he had no idea who he should choose to pilot Red. He had eventually admitted this to Allura, who then suggested that he go talk to the Black Lion and see what he had to say on the subject.

So that’s why he was in the Black Lion’s hangar, staring up at the enormous lion with no idea how to broach the subject of changing paladins.

Keith decided that it would probably be easier to get advice from his new lion if they bonded first. He just had to figure out how to bond with him.

He started by walking over to the lion’s giant paw and sitting down next to it, hugging it awkwardly. The metal was colder than he expected it to be. While Black wasn't necessarily cold, he was a lot cooler than Red. Keith briefly wondered if Red was warmer than the other lions due to her affinity to fire.

After a while, he wasn't sure how long exactly, he gave up on bonding with the lion by hugging him. Black hadn't reacted at all, and Keith was starting to feel ridiculous, sitting in the middle of the hangar and clutching the leg of a massive robot lion.

He stood up and stepped back, staring at the lion as he tried to think of another way to bond. Slowly, another idea started to form. Lions- even giant alien warships shaped like lions- were just big cats.

Cats had always been weirdly fond of Keith, and as a result, he had become pretty familiar with them. For the most part, they liked their ears scratched. Maybe Black was the same?

He decided to find out. He stared more intently at the lion, trying to figure out how he would reach his ears. After a moment, he stepped forward again.

Hesitantly, he started to climb up the lion’s leg. Black stayed as silent as ever, not doing anything to help Keith, but not trying to deter him either. Keith decided that that was a good sign and continued his climbing.

He made it about halfway up when his foot slipped. Time seemed to slow down. He hung on for a moment, trying to find a new foothold, but quickly lost his grip entirely and fell.

Keith twisted so he would be able to land on his hands and knees rather than his back, lessening his chances of hitting his head upon collision. He realized he was about to land on Black’s paw and grimaced. This was going to be painful no matter how he landed.

Suddenly, the massive metal paw below him moved. For a moment, Keith thought that Black was going to try to catch him. Then he realized that the lion was only moving to avoid being landed on. A twinge of annoyance flew through Keith, just as time sped up again and he crashed onto the floor of the hangar.

He had been prepared to land in a crouch, then roll to minimize damage, but the shock at seeing Black move had distracted him, causing him to land badly.

Keith stood up after a moment, wincing when he put weight on his left foot. He limped back to his original position in front of the lion and sat down angrily, glaring at Black as he did so.

“Alright, look. I know you’d rather have Shiro here! I would too, if I’m being honest. I don’t know if I can lead this team, and I wish I didn’t have to, but until we get Shiro back, I’m going to have to try! And I need your help to do that!” He yelled at the lion furiously. Black didn't respond.

“Shiro is a great leader, but I don’t know the first thing about leading a group of people! You’re a leader too, I know you are, so I need your help to keep this team from falling apart more than it already has!” Keith’s anger was starting to dissipate, but he was still extremely irritated by the lack of response he was getting from the lion.

“Allura wants me to choose someone to pilot Red while I’m with you. This is such a huge decision, and I have no idea what to do. Because if I move one of the paladins to Red, I’ll have to move someone else to their lion as well. Eventually either Coran or Allura is going to have to become a paladin as well. I thought about just making one of them the red paladin, but that’s not going to work.” Keith sighed, frustrated.

“Last time Coran tried to pilot Red, she ran off into space on her own. She won’t listen to him. And Allura is too calculating- she doesn’t rely on instinct. So she’s not a match for Red. Honestly, she’s more of a leader than I am, and you’d probably be more accepting of her than of me, but she’s insisting that we respect Shiro’s decision for me to become the leader.”

Keith looked down again, surprised by how useless he felt suddenly. He couldn’t bond with his new lion. He couldn’t decide how to rearrange the team. How were they going to be able to get Shiro back if he couldn’t even do the most basic tasks required of a leader?

“What would Shiro do in this situation?” He asked Black. The lion still didn’t move, but Keith was suddenly aware of a familiar presence. He looked up. “Shiro?” He called out hesitantly.

If you can’t find a paladin to pilot your lion, figure out which lion would be best for the new paladin and work from there.

Keith looked around, startled. He hadn’t exactly heard the voice- it was more like how Red communicated with him. But his lion never used actual words. It was always pictures, images, impulses. He had assumed that it was the same for the others as well. But maybe Black, being the leader, was different?

He stared at the lion again, trying to find some kind of tell that proved that Black had in fact spoken to him. “Was that you?” He asked out loud. There was still no response. He sighed and stood up. Maybe the stress was getting to him.

“Right. Well, I’m leaving now. I’ll think about this some more though. See ya.” He turned to exit the hangar, suddenly eager to leave. He thought about visiting Red, but ultimately decided against it. He needed to get used to relying on his new lion, and it would be more difficult to bond with Black if he kept visiting the other lion as well. Reluctantly, he decided to go to the kitchen instead. Hopefully, his mind would be more focused if he ate.

He was surprised as the doors whooshed open to reveal Hunk, wearing his helmet but not his armor. “Um, hi?” Keith said hesitantly, unsure of what was going on.

“Guys, I found him. He's in the Black Lion’s hangar.” Hunk said into the comm system in his helmet.

Keith realized that the others must have split up to look for him, using their helmets to stay in contact with each other. He briefly wondered how long he'd been in the hangar for them to become worried enough that they would actively search for him.

A few moments later, Keith heard pounding footsteps outside the door, and suddenly Lance was there, panting slightly after sprinting from who knows where.

“When’s the last time you ate?” He asked immediately.

Keith looked down, unsure. “I don’t know. Breakfast?”

“Yesterday’s breakfast, maybe. Sit down.” Lance ordered. “We made sure to save you some leftovers from dinner today.” Keith looked at him, surprised.

He sat down, too stunned to argue. He’d gone to visit Black right after breakfast, but it sounded like Lance was saying that an entire day had passed since then.

Pidge appeared, holding her laptop in one hand and typing with the other. She was balancing a bowl of food goo in the crook of her arm. She set the bowl in front of him. “Bon appetit.” She told him, never looking up from her computer.

“What are you guys all doing in here?” Keith asked before turning his attention to his food. He hadn’t realized he was so hungry.

“You didn't show up to like five meals in a row, so we started to get worried. What were you doing here?” Lance finished the explanation, looking at him accusingly as he waited for Keith’s response.

“I was just visiting Black.” Keith told them, still slightly confused.

“For nearly two quintants?” Pidge asked skeptically.

“I didn’t realize it had been that long.” He admitted.

“How do you not realize you’ve been sitting in a room for nearly thirty vargas?!” Lance shrieked.

“And without food or anything, too.” Hunk added.

“I don’t know.” Keith said. He looked up, feeling a twinge of guilt when he saw the concern on their faces. “I just wanted to try to bond with Black, so I stayed here for a while, talking and trying to make a connection.”

“Did you even sleep?” Hunk asked.

“Yeah. I started to feel kinda tired after a while, and I was thinking about just going to bed, but then I remembered hearing somewhere that if you sleep next to someone, you’ll feel more connected to them after that, and I thought it might work with the lions too, so I gave it a shot.”

“You slept in the hangar?” Pidge asked. “That must have been uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, it was. I kept waking up, and I couldn’t tell what time it was, so I’d just go back to sleep since I was still exhausted. I felt like I hadn’t slept at all.” Keith admitted. He realized that he’d probably spent most of the day dozing, when he’d originally thought he’d only been asleep for a few hours. Even then, he was still exhausted.

“Well, that’s no good. You should go get some sleep now. Sleep is important, you know, and it is getting kind of late.” Lance informed him.

“Yeah, but food is important too. He hasn’t eaten in more than a quintant.” Hunk reminded him gently.

“He can just eat when he wakes up, though.”

“Yeah, or he can finish eating before he goes to sleep.”

Hunk and Lance continued their discussion, but Keith was too tired to pay attention any longer. Had he even finished his food? He wasn’t sure. The clacking of Pidge’s computer as she typed and the murmuring of the other two paladins quickly lulled him to sleep. It wasn’t a deep sleep- he was laying on the floor of the hangar, and it was no better than when he’d slept there the night before- but it was still better than nothing.

He was somewhat brought back to a semblance of consciousness when he heard Hunk’s voice soften, and he vaguely registered the words sleeping and quiet before he was pulled back to sleep again.

It only lasted for a moment, though, as he was suddenly very much aware of something poking his arm.

“Is he dead?” He heard Lance ask. “Keiiiith. Are you dead?”

“No, but you will be soon if you don’t let me sleep.” Keith somehow mustered up the energy to respond.

“Ha! See, Hunk, I told you he should sleep first!” Lance proclaimed proudly.

“Well, let’s get him to his room, then, so he can sleep properly.” Hunk replied, apparently unbothered by Lance’s victory.

Keith realized he should probably stand up, but when he tried to put weight on his left foot, a flash of pain swept through him, making him lose his balance. Luckily, Hunk caught his arm before he fell over.

“Wow, you really are tired, aren’t you?” Lance commented, sounding more serious than he had a moment before. “Well, then. Hunk, you carry him to his room. He’s way too tired to get there on his own. I’ll take his food back to the kitchen. Pidge-” Pidge was obviously in the middle of something, and knowing her she probably wouldn’t move from her spot on the floor until she finished whatever it was. “Turn off the lights when you leave.” Lance finished, knowing that nothing he said would make Pidge go to bed sooner now that she was in the Zone. Pidge nodded slightly, but made no further effort to confirm that she had heard him.

“Actually, Lance, I was gonna bake for a bit before I went to bed, so if you want to take Keith, I could take the food back to the kitchen, since I’m going there anyways.” Hunk offered. “His room is closer to yours than the kitchen is anyways, and I know you’re tired too.”

Lance grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, okay. Just make sure that you don’t stay up too late, alright?” He looked at Hunk pointedly as he picked up Keith, who was still unable to stand on his own.

“I’m fine.” Keith informed him. He didn’t want to worry the others about his leg, and he knew they’d make a bigger deal out of it than it was. As far as he could tell, they thought that he was having trouble standing because of his exhaustion, and he wasn’t about to correct them.

“That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.” Lance informed him as he carried him to the door of the hangar. Keith grumbled a bit, but didn’t protest further, and fell fully asleep before they were even halfway to his room.


End file.
